


The Red Book

by Nary



Category: Diablotin
Genre: Albinism, Biting, Bloodplay, Bondage, Disabled Character, Dubious Consent, Dubious Ethics, Emotional Manipulation, F/M, Face Slapping, Hair-pulling, Implied Incest, Interrogation, Knifeplay, Lies, Oral Sex, Romance, Sibling Rivalry, Sisters, Spies & Secret Agents, Theft, Threats, Torture, thieves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-11-18
Updated: 2012-11-18
Packaged: 2017-11-18 22:55:23
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,173
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/566183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nary/pseuds/Nary
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The job was a book - a family heirloom, he gathered, passed down from Loric's father.  Jacobine had been able to provide a careful description of it: less than an inch thick, about nine inches tall, bound in red leather, no title on the exterior but the family crest on the spine in gold, full of handwritten notes.  Apparently it had belonged to some long-dead great-aunt who had been a professor at the Castalia.  Jacobine herself was a professor at the Castalia, and felt that she was more entitled to the book and its contents than her heretic cult leader of an older brother.  Dez's father worked with her, but he himself had never actually spoken with her, and had no idea what the book was supposed to contain, since she allegedly didn't know herself.  Dez didn't buy that for a minute - no one hired professionals to break into their sibling's house for a book they didn't know would be valuable, or at least useful.   It probably had some magical crap in it, if he had to guess, with an outside chance of 'map to family treasure'.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Red Book

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Measured_Words](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Measured_Words/gifts).



The mansion belonged to the vak Andras family, but it was the Loric vak Andras family - the rest of the vak Andrases took pains to distinguish themselves from the black sheep, and he in turn had little use for his more conventional relatives. If there hadn't been a rift in the family, though, Deznir wouldn't have gotten this job. Loric's sister Jacobine had hired him. Well, technically, she had approached someone a little higher up the chain than him, but he'd been the one to talk his way into the job, so he felt he'd earned it even so. His own family's tenuous connections with the vak Andras-Lozada cult probably had a little something to do with his assignment, but mostly, he chose to believe, it was due to his skills. 

The job was a book - a family heirloom, he gathered, passed down from Loric's father. Jacobine had been able to provide a careful description of it: less than an inch thick, about nine inches tall, bound in red leather, no title on the exterior but the family crest on the spine in gold, full of handwritten notes. Apparently it had belonged to some long-dead great-aunt who had been a professor at the Castalia. Jacobine herself was a professor at the Castalia, and felt that she was more entitled to the book and its contents than her heretic cult leader of an older brother. Dez's father worked with her, but he himself had never actually spoken with her, and had no idea what the book was supposed to contain, since she allegedly didn't know herself. Dez didn't buy that for a minute - no one hired professionals to break into their sibling's house for a book they didn't know would be valuable, or at least useful. It probably had some magical crap in it, if he had to guess, with an outside chance of 'map to family treasure'.

The Hush didn't care one way or the other which of the siblings owned the book in question. But they were extremely interested in the current activities of the Serpent sect, which they had yet to successfully infiltrate, and this assignment provided an opportunity to take a look inside their leaders' home. That, and no doubt a few favours being owed by someone somewhere, was the reason they took the job in the first place - they didn't often do private commissions. "Try to have a look around if you can," Dez had been instructed, "but don't take any stupid risks. Your priority is to get in, get the book, and get out." 

That was how he came to be crawling up the wall of Loric and Viviane vak Andras's home at sometime around midnight on a moonless night. He had made a study of their household, as much as he could at least - he had consulted San's old notes about the cult, even though they were no doubt obsolete by now, and had learned about the family's composition, including Loric and Viviane's three daughters: Azarea, Lucrezia, and Severine. 

They were of necessity a very private lot, and it was difficult to get good, detailed information about their habits, but he'd waited until lights were extinguished and then a fair while longer before beginning his climb. He'd been able to glean some information about the mansion's internal layout from some casual questions to Arek, and believed he would be making his entrance into a guest bedroom. From there, he could cross the corridor to the library, where he sincerely hoped the book would be located. Then he could either return the way he'd come, or, if absolutely necessary, get out the library window, but that faced the street and would consequently be more risky.

His fingers dug into the crevices of the stone wall as he scaled his way to the upper storey of the house. He carried his rope and various other thieves' tools in a satchel on his back, but he didn't need it for this particular climb - the stonework was old, and they didn't take overly good care of it, so there were some gaps in the mortar to let him get a decent grip. He wore black, but his hands were bare to let him climb better - he would put on gloves once he was at the window. The ledge gave him little room to perch, and there were curtains drawn, so he couldn't see what was inside, but there was no light at least, and no sound that he could hear. He slid on the fine leather gloves and tried the window. It wasn't open, but he found with a bit of careful manipulation that he could slide a blade between the casements and flick open the lock. The windows opened inward with a sudden gust of air that blew the curtains aside, and he crept into the dark room. 

Fortunately he could see well in the dark, a trait inherited from his mother's side of the family. So when the girl in the large four-poster bed sat up, he noticed a split second before she was able to flick open the light. He weighed his options rapidly - jump back out the window, shift to the Shadow Plane, hide somewhere, or silence her before she could shriek and alert anyone else to his presence. Jumping out the window was risky, and there was nowhere he could hide before she would spot him. Shifting to the Shadow Plane would work, but would also effectively end his attempt at infiltrating the household. He had no particular wish to kill the young woman - it would cause a lot more problems for him in the long run. But there might be other ways to silence her...

"Shh," he whispered, putting his finger to his lips before she could say anything. "Please don't be alarmed, Mlle. vak Andras." He had made sufficient study of the family to recognize her as the middle daughter, Lucrezia. None of the girls were seen often in public, but Lucrezia even less than her sisters. Rumour had it that she was sickly, and indeed she looked frail, although perhaps some of her pallor was due to the unexpected appearance of a young man in her room in the middle of the night.

She didn't stir out of the bed, but leaned forward slightly, eyes sparkling. "If you're here to rob us, I shall scream myself hoarse. If you're here to ravish me, that's another story."

Dez blinked, startled at her apparent excitement. This was going to be easier than he'd anticipated. He put on a nervous look, but smiled at her. "I caught a glimpse of your beauty as you rode out in your carriage one day, and I just had to see you again. I know it's wrong, but your parents practically keep you locked away in here! I had no other choice." 

"I know! It's horribly unfair," she agreed. "I hardly get to go anywhere or meet any boys at all! What's your name?" 

"Desmond," he said - it was his default fake name when he needed one quickly, sounding enough like his own that he could react naturally to it, turning his head when called and so on. "And you're Lucrezia, right?"

"Lu," she said, pulling a face. "I hate my name. It sounds like an old lady."

"No, it's pretty," he insisted. "But I'll call you Lu if you like it better." He risked taking a step closer to the bed, almost putting out a hand to her before remembering he was wearing gloves. "Is this your room?" he asked, taking a moment to set down his bag and pull the gloves off at the same time, he hoped subtly. He wondered if his reconnaissance had been wrong when he'd determined this was a guest chamber.

Lu shook her head. Her hair was fine and dark, held back in a braid but somewhat tousled from sleep so that several strands fell loose around her face. She was skinny and fragile, the kind of girl who looked like she might shatter if you hugged her too hard. "The maid broke a bottle of perfume in my bedroom, and it smells too much to sleep in there, so I'm here instead."

Dez was somewhat gratified to know he hadn't been horribly mistaken, then. "I'm really sorry I woke you," he said, trying to act suitably flustered. "Maybe I should go..."

"No, don't leave!" she pleaded, stretching out her delicate hand towards him. "Stay with me, just for a little while." She sounded playful, flirtatious, but a little lonely and desperate too. Dez knew he could work with that.

He came to sit beside her on the bed, taking her hand between his own, still playing the shy suitor. "I only hoped to talk with you... I didn't imagine you would want - " His words were cut off as she grabbed hold of his shirtfront with her free hand and tugged him down to kiss her. He let himself respond, but not too aggressively, not wanting to frighten her. However, it was soon clear that she was anything but alarmed at his attentions. When he grew bold enough to touch her tiny breasts through her nightgown, she gasped, gripping his wrist tightly to keep him there. After a few moments, she reclined once more on the bed, pulling him down on top of her. Evidently she was not going to be content with nothing but a few kisses.

Dez had already been considering his options when she began fiddling with the button at his shirt collar. He couldn't let her undress him, not without revealing all the knives and thieves' tools he had hidden on his person, which would rather undermine his story of being a lovesick boy. As she undid one button, then another, he kissed her with greater intensity, hopefully enough to make her head spin, and then moved to one side, ostensibly in order to draw back the blankets that covered her from the waist down, actually to give himself a moment to think. Lucrezia gave a delicious little shiver at his apparent boldness. "We can do anything you want," she whispered, reaching up to run her fingers through his hair, loosening it somewhat from its tight braid. 

"Anything?" he asked, playfully sliding his hand up her skinny leg, pushing her nightgown along with it. She giggled and nodded, parting her thighs to let him explore further. Instead, however, he drew back, making her wait a little, going back to kissing and caressing her. 

"You must have such pretty hair," she murmured, playing with the stray locks she'd managed to liberate. "Will you let it down for me?"

"Of course," he told her, untying the knot that kept it braided, and palming the pair of suspiciously needle-pointed hairpins that were concealed there at the same time. He shook his head to let his black hair fall loose over his shoulders, knowing full well what a striking contrast it made with his pallid skin. Lucrezia drew a sharp breath, and he smiled, satisfied with her response. "Can I kiss you?"

"You already have, silly!" Her eyes sparkled in the lamplight and her cheeks were flushed.

"I didn't mean on the mouth," he told her slyly. 

"Oh! Oh yes," she gasped, "please do!" She helped him unfasten her nightgown until he was able to part it and reveal her small, pointed breasts. She drew his head down to tongue them, easing the delicate pink nipples into puckered firmness. 

Dez approached the job clinically, staying detached, as he'd been taught, letting her see just enough signs of passion to maintain the facade that he was caught up in the moment instead of weighing every move, every breath, judging the reaction it would produce in her, calculating how he would get away, considering whether he could get anything useful from her before he made his escape.

When his hand finally crept up further beneath her nightgown, he found her wet and ready. She squirmed and blushed, but also opened her legs wider, encouraging his touch. Dez smiled, not simply at her obvious arousal, but with the pleasure of a job well done, and, if he admitted it to himself, with the power he held over her at this moment. She gave a little cry as he gently stroked her clit with the tip of his thumb. "Keep doing that!" she begged, so he continued, rubbing her more firmly, watching with academic curiosity as her eyes fluttered shut and her lips parted. Lu's head rolled back onto her pillow, but to his relief she kept mostly silent as he fingered her, only sighs and whispered pleas for more.

Dez shifted downwards on the bed, making some discreet adjustments in an effort to make himself more comfortable. He was hard, but for the time being he was able to push that desire aside, knowing that to give in to it would leave him distracted and vulnerable. He kept working his thumb against her clit, while sliding a single finger into the delicate slit of her pussy. Lu gasped as he penetrated her, but her narrow passage opened without much resistance, so he was reasonably sure she'd done this, or other things very much like it, before. From what he knew of her family, frankly, he would have been far more surprised if she was still a virgin at the age of twenty. She was so tight, though, and he could imagine vividly what it would be like to push his cock into her, how amazing she would feel when she shuddered around him... He tried to keep his mind focused on the job at hand. It's all right, he told himself, later you can jerk off thinking about this. It was a promise he had made to himself before, although not usually with this desperate fervency.

He had to finish her off soon, though - the amount of time he was spending here was starting to make him nervous. Dez lowered his mouth to her cunt, flicking his tongue swiftly across her clit, which made her give a distressingly loud shriek. He lifted his head instantly and put a finger to his lips, and she threw her hand quickly across her mouth, eyes wide. "Shh," he hissed, and wondered if he needed to get away now, rather than waiting for her to come. He wasn't sure how soundly others in the household slept, or whether they would have been near enough to be awakened by her cry. 

Lu was evidently thinking along the same lines, because in a soft voice she implored him to stay. "Don't worry, no one will think anything's wrong, they hear that sort of thing all the time!" Dez, reluctant to give up on his assignment and admit failure, allowed himself to be convinced. He went back to tonguing her, working more intently now in his haste to bring her to orgasm and hopefully make his escape. Lu writhed under his ministrations, but didn't cry out again, or at least not too loudly. "Oh, that's it, hurry!" she gasped, and reached down to tangle her hand in his hair, keeping him there. He could have broken away from her grip, but she was so close... He could feel the tension in her skinny legs, hear her quick, shallow breaths, and he wanted her to finish, wanted to hear the sounds she would make when she came. He knew it was stupid, risky, but kept going anyway, driven by his own stubborn need to accomplish his goal. 

Her sharp hipbones pressed up against his hands, and he pushed her back down, pinning her easily as he devoured her dripping cunt. Then she did moan aloud once more, but this time Dez didn't stop, pressing onwards until she shuddered under his mouth and his hands, and he felt a sense of satisfaction that had little to do with the throbbing erection in his trousers. He drew back, short of breath, and ran his fingers over her clit again, enjoying the way it made her twitch and whimper. 

"Well, what's this?" drawled a woman's voice as the door creaked shut. Dez whirled to see who it was, suddenly flooded with panicky energy. He must not have heard her open the door, distracted by Lu's orgasm. The newcomer was thin, attractive in a sharp-featured way, and wore a glittering sky-blue dress that reached only to her knees - just coming home from a party, then, or a nightclub. He recognized her as Azarea, the eldest of the sisters, and began to hastily reformulate his plans. 

Lucrezia tugged down her nightgown to cover her nakedness, and glared at her sister. "Get out, Zee!"

"Who's your boyfriend?" Azarea asked, arching an eyebrow and stepping closer. "He's pretty." Dez resisted the urge to back up, as that would only serve to trap him against the wall. Instead he slid off the bed, keeping himself between her and the window in case he needed to get out. 

"He's mine," Lu said, sticking out her chin stubbornly. "You have plenty, you can leave this one for me, can't you?"

"Do you even know his name, you little whore? Did you happen to get that piece of information before you let him shove himself inside you?" Azarea's eyes sparkled like her gown as she mocked her sister.

"I did, but it's none of your business," Lucrezia said firmly. "So just get out and leave us alone!"

"Oh, you want me to go tell Mother and Father you've got a visitor? I'm sure they'd be charmed to meet him - maybe he ought to wipe your cunt-juice off his face first, though, hmm?"

Lucrezia went a bit pale at that. "No, don't tell them, please!"

Dez watched the exchange with interest, despite how nervous he was feeling. He knew he could still get away by shifting planes if it came down to that, but he thought there was a chance that he could work this situation to his advantage instead. "Please, you don't have to tell anyone," he said, letting a tremor that wasn't entirely feigned creep into his voice. "I'll do whatever you want." He braved a step closer to Azarea, trying to look hopeful and innocent and horny at the same time. The last wasn't a stretch in the least.

"Whatever I want?" she said with a slow smile. "And should my sister watch while I do whatever I want to you?"

Dez glanced at Lucrezia, who was staring at him with big pleading eyes. He weighed his answer carefully, not wanting to alienate her if he could help it. "I'd do anything to keep her safe." The look on Lu's face - relieved, grateful, trusting - told him he'd made the right call.

Azarea was close enough now to trace a slim finger down from his unbuttoned collar, hooking it into his shirt at the point where it was still fastened. "I'll keep that in mind," she purred, and flicked open the next button, baring more of his chest. He knew if she kept undressing him, sooner or later she'd run across one of his knives, or the other tools he kept tucked away. It would be safer to do it himself, so he could control what she'd see. He began unfastening buttons from the bottom, so their hands met at the middle of his torso. She reached beneath the open shirt, seeking out his nipples and giving them a little twist that made him suck in his breath involuntarily.

Then she was pushing him back onto the bed, climbing on top of him, her mouth close to his, but not quite kissing, not yet. Her breath was scented with wine and he could smell perfume and cigar smoke and a faint hint of sweat on her skin. Dez didn't struggle against her, instead pushing his hips up so she could feel his erection against her thighs, letting her think she was in control. Kneeling over him, she began unfastening his belt. She would be bound to notice the knives sheathed there, but that wasn't so unusual - lots of people carried knives at their belts, Diablotin could be a dangerous city for the unwary. 

Once she had the belt undone, she switched her attention to his trousers, unbuttoning them while at the same time casually stroking his cock over the black fabric. Dez couldn't help moaning under his breath, but he told himself that was all right - it would look more real to the girls. Azarea smirked and pressed harder on him with the heel of her hand before working open the last button and helping his dick spring free. "Mmm, there you go," she murmured, fondling it with one hand while she pulled his belt out from under him and shoved his pants down further with the other. 

Beside them on the bed, Lucrezia watched with a mixture of jealousy and interest as her sister played with Dez's cock. "It's so big," she sighed, looking at him longingly.

Azarea shrugged. "It's not bad. I've had plenty bigger, though." Being discussed so frankly made Dez's face burn - as much as he would have liked to hide it, his pale skin showed every violet blush. It was something he'd tried to learn to control, but so far hadn't mastered. Azarea was still stroking him as she talked, though, and that was distracting. He struggled to keep his focus despite the steady friction of her hand curled around his shaft, her thumb rubbing across his already-slick head...

Soon Azarea slid up him a little further, her short skirt hitching up around her thighs, high enough that he could see she had nothing on underneath it. Her pussy slid teasingly along the length of his cock ( _she's had plenty bigger_ , he couldn't help thinking cynically, even as he yearned to be inside her) and she took his hands in hers, pulling them up above his head as she bent to kiss him. Her teeth nipped sharply at his lower lip, making him gasp. When his lips parted, she slipped her tongue between them smoothly, coiling it around his own. He tried to push her into the right position with his hips, bucking up against her, hoping that maybe this would be enough, that she wouldn't insist that he undress the rest of the way. Azarea laughed and moved until his cock was no more than a finger's length from her cunt, tantalizingly close and yet just beyond his reach. He arched up as far as he was able, but she kept moving just a little further away. Dez groaned in frustration, and didn't notice that she was binding his hands with his own belt until it was too late. He tried to get free, but she'd looped it around one of the bedposts and cinched it tight. Smiling in a far less pleasant way, she climbed off him and straightened her skirt. "You're going to struggle, aren't you. We'll have to do something about that."

She crossed the room, ignoring his efforts to get his hands loose. "Don't you dare touch him," she ordered her younger sister before Lucrezia could even think about trying to free him from his bonds. Azarea picked his bag up off the floor and examined it curiously. "How convenient, he brought his own rope," she said, pulling the silken coil out of the sack. She tested its strength, its give, and nodded, seeming pleased, then dumped the rest of the bag's contents out onto the floor - at least, everything that wasn't sewn into its seams or sealed in a secret pocket. "Rather an odd assortment of tools for a lovelorn suitor," she said dryly, and returned to tighten and supplement his restraints with the rope. Dez kicked out, trying to prevent her from tying his feet, but she pinned them one at a time despite his thrashing and managed to bind them to the posts at the foot of the bed. 

"Off with these," she told him, tugging on his soft leather boots, and smirked when she found a dagger concealed in each one. "How many more of these little toys do you have?" She began conducting a more thorough search of his body, finding the blades hidden at his wrists, the one at the small of his back. Dez felt more naked without them than he did when she drew one and began methodically cutting away the rest of his clothes. The knife's point grazed against his arm as she sliced through the fabric of his shirtsleeves, drawing beads of blood to the surface of his pale skin. By the greedy look on her face when she saw the red drops, he didn't think it was accidental. 

Beside him, still immobilized with shock, Lucrezia watched as he was disarmed and disrobed. Azarea passed her each additional knife in turn. "Still think he was just here to recite love poems to you?" she asked, and Lucrezia's pout darkened into a frown. "Thieves' tools and rope in his pack, seven knives hidden all over his body, and... what are these?" She pulled free the sharpened hairpins he'd slipped into his sleeve, handling them gingerly. "Poison needles?"

Dez could have told her they were his emergency lockpicks, but that wouldn't have helped his case any. He stayed silent instead, trying to keep his face blank, not show his fear. Azarea put the hairpins carefully aside and began cutting away his trousers. "Still hard," she noted in passing, and grinned. His continued erection hadn't escaped Dez's notice - in fact, if anything, he was even harder than before, his cock positively aching. It made no logical sense, but then he'd never known sexual arousal to make much sense to begin with. He was tied to a bed, at the mercy of two girls - quite possibly two vindictive, angry, sadistic girls - and yet his dick felt like it would explode if either of them so much as touched it. Some distant part of his brain told him coolly that he could still get away if he had to, he could always shift planes, even if it meant landing naked and unarmed in Sarasagel and having to make his way home from there. Knowing that he always had that escape route available helped him stay calm, or as calm as he could anyway. He could keep going for now, try to get more information out of them, let them think he was vulnerable, draw them into talking... Maybe the mission still wasn't lost, if he handled the situation right.

"You lied to me," Lu was saying, looking petulant and hurt. "You said you came to see me, you said you wanted me, but you didn't. I bet your name isn't even really Desmond!"

"It's not," he admitted. "But I did want you..."

Azarea slapped him across the face, making his eyes water. "Don't lie to my little sister," she snapped. "You came here to rob us, or kill us, or both." 

He could hardly tell them why he had really come - it would only serve to confirm Azarea's suspicions. Instead, he took a different tack. "Nah, I just heard that this place was full of beautiful girls who're in some kind of sex cult, so they'll fuck anyone who comes along."

Lu looked vaguely scandalized, but Azarea just laughed. "You heard wrong, little boy. We fuck who we want, not any stranger off the street. And it still doesn't explain why you felt you had to bring seven knives with you."

Dez shrugged as best as he was able, testing the give of his restraints at the same time. They were still tight. Azarea had some skill with bindings, it seemed. "No one knows what goes on in here - I figured I'd better be prepared for anything."

"Didn't work out so well for you, did it?" Azarea reached back and gave his cock a caress that turned into a twist sharp enough to make him whimper. "You weren't prepared for me." He blinked and nodded, figuring that was safest, to show her a hint of the obedience laced with fear she obviously craved. She smiled, slow and dangerous, and he thought he saw a touch of madness in her eyes. "Tell me what you did to my dear, innocent little sister."

"Nothing she didn't want," he said, which earned him another stinging slap. 

"Stop hitting him, Zee! He didn't do anything wrong!" Lucrezia tugged pointlessly at her sister's arm. 

"Still defending him?" Azarea sneered. "Even after he admitted he just came here looking for a girl to fuck, any girl? He'd have fucked Severine if he'd found her first, and I'm sure he'd have tried to fuck me, judging by how hard he is right now. You weren't special, Lu, you were just easy." She flipped one of the knives around to pass it to her sister, handle first. "And I still think he's lying. But we'll find out the truth soon enough." 

Straddling his chest, her wet pussy leaving a damp patch on his skin, she tipped his chin up with the point of one of his own daggers, forcing him to look her in the face. "You're too well-prepared to be anything but a pro, little boy." Despite himself, Dez smiled at her twisted praise. Azarea didn't seem to appreciate his sense of humour, however, jabbing him more firmly, making him wince as blood trickled down his throat. "Who sent you? What are you here for?"

"If I'm a pro, you must know I'm not going to tell you that easily." 

"We'll see," was all she said, leaning down to lap at the trail of blood pooling at the curve of his throat, all the way up to the spot where she'd cut him. Dez shivered despite himself at the soothing sting of her tongue across his broken skin. "Oh, you like that?" she smirked, licking her crimsoned lips. "See, Lu, you should have just cut him if you wanted to get him off."

Lucrezia just pouted, folding her arms. "I could've done it the regular way," she said sullenly, "if you hadn't interrupted."

Azarea laughed. "You can keep playing with him too, now that he isn't going anywhere." She stroked his hair back from his forehead, which was beading with sweat, then grabbed a handful of it, yanking it tight. "He's going to stay and have fun with us - well, until we get tired of him, anyhow," she purred. "Then we can turn him over to Mother and Father, and they'll have their fun as well. I think he'll like that less, though."

"I thought you weren't going to tell them," Lu protested. "We could just let him go after... I know he wouldn't say anything to anyone, would you?"

Dez shook his head, or tried to, but Azarea was still holding him by the hair, and trying to move made his eyes water. "I wouldn't, I swear, I wouldn't tell a soul," he assured them, pleading. "I'm too scared of what your parents might do. People tell stories about them..." He left it deliberately vague, hoping the girls might fill in some details that would shed light on the cult's activities.

"The stories are mostly lies," Azarea said dismissively, releasing his hair from her grip. "Not all, but most. You shouldn't believe everything you hear." She slid a little lower down his body, the light glinting off the metallic threads of her dress, stopping when his cock nudged against her inner thigh. "Still enjoying this, hm? We'll have to put a stop to that." She brought the dagger's point to rest lightly on his cheek, just below his left eye. "Tell me who hired you."

"No one." Dez held very still, not even blinking, staring up at her, and so was startled when Lu reached out to pull Azarea's arm away, leaving a scratch on his skin but thankfully no deeper wound.

"Zee, don't make a mess all over the bed, I have to sleep here!" Dez considered protesting that that was all she had found to complain about, but it didn't seem like the right time, and anyway, he was grateful for her interruption. 

"You were ready to make a mess of your own with this little thief," Azarea sneered. "It would serve you right to spend the rest of the night in a puddle of his blood, for being such a whore. Or would you ring for a maid and get her to move you to another bed?"

Lucrezia pouted. "I could get back to my own room without anyone's help, thank you very much."

With a throaty laugh, Azarea turned to her sister, sliding half-way off Dez in the process. "Would you cry for him, if he suffered? You would, wouldn't you, you've always been soft."

"You don't even care why he's here!" Lu retorted angrily, her face pale except for two spots of feverish red high on her cheeks. "It's just an excuse to torture him."

Azarea sighed, moving to put her arms around her sister's trembling frame. "Oh, you know me so well. Why are we squabbling, Lu? There's no need for it. We can both have our fun with this one... you can go first, if you want him when he's still in one piece. Look, he's still rock-hard, so take whatever you want from him. He was asking for it, after all." She kissed her sister's cheek and at the same time, Dez couldn't help but notice, slid her hand under her open nightgown to toy with her nipple. The sight shouldn’t have aroused him as much as it did. 

Lucrezia pushed her sister’s hand away, annoyed, but she was eyeing Dez with an appraising look. She leaned over and lightly stroked his cock from base to tip, making it twitch involuntarily and wrenching a gasp from his throat. Giggling, she did it again, rubbing her thumb across his head at the end of her teasing touch before turning it into a sharp little twist that made him hiss. "You like that?" Her mood seemed to shift at the drop of a hat - playful at the moment, but with an undercurrent of viciousness that made him wary.

Azarea watched her sister toy with Dez for a moment, then stood to stretch. "Do you need help getting onto him?" she asked over her shoulder.

"I can do it myself," Lu said stubbornly. As she dragged herself closer, mostly using her arms, Dez realized that she was weaker than he'd originally thought, or maybe had tired herself out with her earlier exertions - her legs seemed frail and shaky. He filed that piece of information away in case it was something he could use, even as she pushed and pulled her way down the bed until her mouth was level with his still-straining dick. She wrapped one delicate hand around it and licked her lips as she looked up at him. "I owe you," she purred, and he wasn't sure from her tone if she meant an orgasm or something more sinister. The her tongue flicked over the head of his cock and made him stop wondering, stop worrying for a moment, and just give himself over to the sensation. It was dangerous, but that was part of why it felt so thrilling.

Meanwhile Azarea circled around to the foot of the bed, watching them with narrowed eyes. "Go deeper," she coached her sister, "use your tongue more," and Lu did her best to follow her directions. Dez sucked in his breath when he felt the tip of her knife - no, his knife - touch the sole of his foot, the soft, uncallused arch, tickling, pricking at his skin. He kept perfectly still, or tried to, despite the exquisite sensation of Lu's eager mouth on him. The effort made his thighs tremble, though, and Azarea laughed at the sight. "No, you don't want to do that," she told him. "You want to do just exactly what I say, and maybe you'll be able to walk out of here. Maybe." Her tone of voice suggested that she wasn't making any promises.

"W-what do you want?" he gasped.

"You know, I've almost forgotten," she said with a sly smile. "Remind me." And she carved away a strip of flesh on the inner curve of the arch, to let him know she was serious. The sudden pain made him jerk and twist away, pulling sharply against the ropes that bound him. It must have startled Lu as well, for her teeth scraped against him as she sat up abruptly, and at that Dez couldn't help but scream.

"Shut up!" Azarea snapped. She looked around warily, as if expecting someone to burst through the door, but after a few moments passed in silence except for Dez's quiet whimpering she seemed to relax again. "That was your own fault," she told Lucrezia, who sniffed unhappily. "Clumsy." Both ignored Dez's plight entirely. The cut to his foot was more agonizing, but probably not too serious - it was shallow, and not on a spot where he'd have to put pressure to walk. The scrape of teeth on his dick had been alarming, and still worried him, but he didn't think she'd done any permanent damage. For the first time since he'd climbed into the bed, though, his erection had flagged, the throbbing tension draining out of it, supplanted fully by pain and fear.

"I wasn't expecting you to cut him!" Lu protested. "You said I could have him in one piece!" Under her whining, which he was finding increasingly annoying, Dez could hear footsteps padding lightly down the hall, muffled by thick carpet but clearly audible to his keen ears. He wasn't sure if the girls had heard it yet or not, so he tried not to betray anything by letting his eyes slide in the direction of the door. 

When the door swung open he was the only one who wasn't surprised. Azarea jumped back about a foot, and Lucrezia squealed and threw herself more or less on top of Dez, blocking his view of the new arrival, whose first words were a hissed "What's going on?" Female, sounded young, not deferential the way a servant would be, or as authoritative as a parent - he guessed it was the youngest sister, Severine. 

He craned his neck to try and get a look at her, but Lu was still flailing around in his line of sight. "You didn't even lock the door?" she wailed at Azarea.

"Oh, it's only you," Azarea was saying, looking less frantic. "Shut it behind you."

The newcomer moved into the room, shutting the door as instructed, and Dez got his first look at her. She was deathly pale, with a cascade of snowy white hair that fell to her shoulders. For a second she reminded him of shadar-kai he'd seen on the Shadow Plane, among his mother's people, that same colourless beauty. When she turned to stare at him, however, he could see that even though her eyebrows and eyelashes were white, her eyes were an odd reddish-pink shade. She was striking, and he might have thought more about her looks under different circumstances. For now he was just hoping that her interruption would make the situation better, not worse. 

"What are you doing to him?" she asked. She sounded more resigned than shocked, but Dez would take that over gleeful enthusiasm. 

"He broke in," Azarea explained. "We were... questioning him."

"I can imagine," Severine sighed. "Did you get anything out of him? Other than blood," she added, eyeing the knife in Azarea's hand.

"Not even much of that. We'd barely started, though," Azarea smirked. "He's too well-equipped and too disciplined to be an amateur, so someone must have hired him."

"What for?" Severine asked. "Was he trying to steal something?"

"He was busy fucking Lu, actually," Azarea said over Lucrezia's futile complaints.

"Not much of a professional thief, then," Severine said dryly. "Letting himself get distracted like that."

Dez would have liked to prove to her that he hadn't been distracted, not really, but he couldn't honestly say she was wrong. He'd fucked up this job so far, and Nycaise would have said the same if she had been watching, if she wasn't busy enumerating point by point precisely where he'd gone wrong. He thought he could still redeem himself though, if he could handle this right. "Not a thief," he muttered, giving Severine a pleading look.

"He says he's not a thief," she told her sister with a shrug.

"So maybe he's just a pervert who likes climbing into girls' windows in the middle of the night? Why would he go after Lu, then? Does he just like it when they can't run away?" 

"Hey!" Lucrezia protested. "I wasn't trying to run away..."

Severine gave a little laugh. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe he's a test?"

Azarea frowned. "What do you mean, a test?"

"You know how Mother is about secrecy. Would you really put it past her to hire some boy to try and seduce information out of us, just to see how we react?"

There was a pause as each of the sisters considered this. Dez filed it away for future consideration himself, but for the moment he thought he could work with it. "Please, whatever you do, don't turn me over to your mother," he begged, adding a note of panic to his voice.

"You think he'd be that scared of her if he'd never met her?" Severine said, waving a hand in his direction but not really looking at him. "She's probably sitting in her room right now, watching the clock and noticing just how long it's taking you two to report the intruder to her. In fact, maybe I should go tell her right now..."

For the first time, Dez detected a flicker of fear on Azarea's face. "No," she blurted. "I'll go." 

"What will we do with him, though?" Lu asked anxiously. "I'd better stay and watch him."

Azarea's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "So you can let him go? I don't think so. You're coming with me."

"Better hope he doesn't escape," Severine said dryly. "Did you notice he's already working his wrist out of the belt there?" Dez froze in his efforts at loosening the restraints, which he had imagined were subtle. 

After tightening his bonds efficiently, Azarea gave him a final appraisal. "He's not getting out of _that_."

Severine shrugged. "Oh, I'm sure he couldn't possibly."

"Fine!" Azarea snapped. "You stay and watch him, then." Grabbing Lucrezia by one skinny arm, she half-helped, half-hauled her sister out of bed and, throwing open the door, dragged her off down the hallway, with Lu whining in protest the entire way. 

Severine waited for a count of ten, until they were out of earshot, and then hurried over to untie Dez. "Don't have much time," she told him briskly.

"What are you doing?" he gasped, rubbing his wrists as they were freed to try and get some feeling back into his hands.

"Rescuing you, obviously." She moved to the bottom of the bed, grabbing one of the knives on the way to cut the ropes that held his feet. "Can you walk, or do I need to carry you?"

Dez scrambled upright with as much grace as he could muster. The cut on his foot throbbed with pain, but he managed to avoid screaming when he put his weight on it. "I'll manage," he replied through gritted teeth. "I can't believe that worked."

"The thing you have to know," she said, "is that Azarea is extremely paranoid, and Lucrezia is extremely gullible. And neither of them think I'm good for anything other than doing exactly what they tell me. I've made sure of that." As Dez stared at her in open admiration, Severine plucked at the shredded remains of his clothing. "Well, you're not putting these back on," she said grimly, and shrugged off her robe, leaving her in a nightgown. The robe was violet silk, with a delicate floral pattern. Dez eyed it dubiously. "It's your choice," she said with a shrug and a grin. "Put it on, or walk back to wherever you call home naked."

He didn't tell her he wasn't intending on walking far, once he got out of their house - he had several caches of supplies on the Shadow Plane, including changes of clothes. He could have gone there right now, vanishing before her eyes. But somehow he found he wanted this girl to rescue him - she seemed to be enjoying herself so much. He slid on the robe, which strained across his shoulders and barely reached his knees, knowing full well how ridiculous he looked. "Do you like it?" he smiled.

Severine gave him an appraising look. "It would be better if you weren't covered in blood," she said, and beckoned for him to follow her. Dez grabbed up his bag, shoving as many of the knives into it as he could, and headed after her. He knew he was probably leaving bloody footprints, but the carpets were dark shades, and they probably wouldn't show up to human eyes until daylight. She moved quietly, clearly skilled at subterfuge, and he admired the care she took in opening the door across the hall so that it didn't squeak. She ushered him in and shut the door just as carefully. Dez's gaze fell on the shelves of books and he realized with a surge of excitement that he was in the library. Maybe his original mission could be salvaged after all... He began quickly scanning the shelves for a slim red book with a gold crest on the spine. 

Meanwhile, Severine was looking out the window, which opened onto the street rather than a conveniently sheltered garden. There would be little traffic at this time of night, but still she waited until the coast was clear to unlock it and swing it open, drawing in a breeze that ruffled her hair and Dez's flowery robe. "I need you to do something for me before you go," she told him.

"What?" he asked, not allowing himself to be distracted from his hasty but, he hoped, subtle search. 

"Hit me." She anticipated his confusion and continued quickly, "And do a good job, so that I can say you broke free and overpowered me when they ask."

"Oh!" Dez's exclamation was prompted more by noticing a slim crimson tome with a faded gilt crest embossed on the spine, just above eye level on a shelf near the window. He felt sure it had to be the book he was after. But Severine was approaching him, and he couldn't just grab it with her eyes fixed on him so intently... 

"Come on," she urged him, "hurry up, they won't be gone much longer." She tilted her chin up, closing her eyes to wait for the blow.

Dez hesitated only a moment before backhanding her. He aim for her cheek, where it would bruise and look bad but hopefully not cause any serious damage. She flinched, then steadied herself. "Again. Harder." He struck her with more force this time, enough to make her stagger back, clutching her face. While she was recovering, he took the opportunity to carefully judge the distance between the book and the window where he would soon be making his exit. "Good enough," she gasped, straightening up. Her lip, he noticed, was swollen and her skin stained with blood, although he thought it was probably his.

"Will you be okay once I'm gone? You could come with me." He didn't know he was going to make the offer until it was already coming out of his mouth. It would be a terrible idea - he wouldn't be able to make his escape through the Shadow Plane with her in tow, and her parents would probably press kidnapping charges, if they weren't caught before they even made it off the grounds. In a way, it was a relief when she laughed, but relief tinged with a hint of disappointment. 

"I'll be all right," Severine assured him. "But I might like to see you again sometime, under less dramatic circumstances. Do you have a name? A _real_ name?"

"Deznir," he said. He couldn't quite bring himself to tell her his full name, but there weren't any other Deznirs in the city as far as he knew - probably none on this plane, in fact. If she was good enough, she'd be able to track him down. Then he put the final part of his plan into action as he laid his hands on her shoulders and pressed her back against the shelf, knocking over several books in the process, allowing him to grab the important one while he was kissing her. He didn't pull back right away, but let the embrace, in which Severine was an enthusiastic participant, continue. He told himself it was just to give himself more time to hide the tome up the sleeve of the ridiculous flowered robe, which did nothing to conceal his renewed arousal.

Finally she pushed him back. "Get out, I need at least a minute or two to set up the escape scene in the bedroom."

"You're brilliant," he told her, and meant it.

Severine smiled, her pale skin flushed red from more than just the blows he'd given her moments before, and shoved him in the direction of the window. "See you soon, Deznir." She waited until he'd lowered himself safely out of the way before shutting it behind him. He dropped the rest of the distance to the ground, landing in some bushes that cushioned his fall even as they also scratched him with their brambles. He rolled safely behind them before he finally shifted into the Plane of Shadow and, to all mundane observers, vanished. 

The violet robe he was wearing was the only spot of colour visible when he arrived in Sarasagel, which was for the best. No apparitions, no curious strangers, grey and cold and clammy - just the way Dez liked it. After getting his bearings he made his way quickly to the nearest of the several caches he kept there. It was stashed in the ceiling of one of the many abandoned buildings, and contained a change of clothing, a pair of daggers, a small amount of money, a healing potion, and a few other emergency supplies. He eyed the potion longingly, but his injuries weren't serious, just annoying - they would heal quickly enough on their own, and other than the one on his foot, probably wouldn't even leave much in the way of scars. Scars were distinguishing features, and he tried to avoid them, but sometimes he could understand his mother's point of view on the subject - they were also important reminders of things it was better not to forget, like about the risks of letting your guard down.

Setting aside the book that had been the cause of so much trouble, he took off Severine's robe and folded it neatly without giving too much thought to why he was doing it - whether to give it back to her some day, or just because he wanted to keep it as a souvenir. He shivered as he stepped into his trousers and pulled them up, then tugged his shirt on, wincing slightly at the scrapes and cuts and bruises that he would have to avoid explaining to his parents soon enough. His gaze settled on the book when he was finally dressed once more. It was risky to read it, he knew, but he'd been trained never to overlook an opportunity to gather information - and besides, he wanted to know whether its contents could possibly be useful enough to compensate for his troubles. He picked it up and weighed it in his hand, considering. It wasn't terribly thick, less than an inch, so probably not a diary, not for a woman who'd lived a relatively long life, unless she wasn't particularly diligent about writing in it. That it bore her noble family's crest suggested it was a private volume, not something associated with her academic work, or at least not something she had wanted published. His curiosity was piqued, and he opened it gingerly, in case it should fall apart. The pages were old, and the leather spine cracked slightly, but it had been an expensive book to begin with and the binding was still solid, the handwriting unfaded by the years. Dez sat down to read.

He didn't understand much of the book's contents - she used plenty of abbreviations and shorthand that he couldn't decipher, although maybe it would make more sense to a spellcaster like Jacobine. What he did glean from it was that it concerned matters of arcane theory, speculations and notes for research, jotted down lists of ingredients that he was fairly sure weren't for the vak Andras family's secret elderberry wine recipe. He skimmed much of it. Towards the back of the book, though, there was a page with "TERRIBLE IDEA" written at the top, which intrigued him enough to make him pause and read more carefully. 

_Golems and other constructs are powerful fighters,_ he read, _but limited by their lack of minds, only following orders they have been given without question or deviation, or otherwise rampaging aimlessly, unable to think for themselves. It occurs that if they could be rendered sentient, or at least sufficiently so to react mindfully to circumstances around them, they would make a formidable force, perhaps able to supplement (or even spare) human soldiers in battle. Although in practice this would be possible to achieve by the means I outline below, the frightful costs and unknown risks inherent in creating, effectively, a new form of life, imbued with minds and, perhaps, souls, give me pause..._

Not enough pause to not write it down, Dez thought dryly. The creation process she sketched out made little sense to him, and he soon shut the book. He wasn't sure if this was why Jacobine wanted it, but regardless, she'd have it soon enough. Unless he accidentally 'lost' it, or sold it to the highest bidder - but no, that was too risky. He thought for a moment about taking it to San, asking his father's advice, but that would mean explaining where he'd found it. Instead he gathered up his things and prepared to return to Diablotin, knowing that, at least for now, he'd do exactly what he'd been hired for. He wasn't being paid to worry about magical ethics, after all, just to retrieve a book, and that's what he had done. Learning a few extra odds and ends along the way (and, said a little voice at the back of his head that he tried to shush, meeting Severine) was his own personal reward, and he'd hang onto the information until it was more useful to him for someone else to know it too.

**Author's Note:**

> You can find me on Tumblr at [naryrising](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/naryrising) if you want to ask questions, make requests, or chat!


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